Proposal to Expand Landfill Passes Last Major Hurdle

Expansion of the San Marcos landfill cleared its last major hurdle Wednesday, giving North County’s only public dump a few more years of operation and affording the county a breather in the press to solve the area’s trash dilemma.

By an 8-1 vote, the state Regional Water Quality Control Board approved a 200-foot vertical expansion, to a height of 950 feet. Without the approval, the dump would have filled up and closed in March, officials predicted.

The expansion had already won the approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the county air board and several other bodies. Two other agencies are expected to give their thumbs-ups soon.

“This action gives us time, gives us a breather so that we can concentrate on locating another North County site for a landfill,” County Supervisor John MacDonald said.

The state water board’s approval requires continued monitoring of ground water to prevent contamination of wells in the rural area surrounding the dump, and the presentation of a closure plan for the expanded landfill.

If the expansion had been denied, North County trash would have had to have been carried to other county landfills in the South Bay and East County, MacDonald said. The use of distant landfills would have raised the cost of waste disposal services countywide and worsened the county’s air quality because of truck exhaust emissions on the long-distance hauls.

Neighbors of the San Marcos site attacked the expansion plan, charging that ground and surface water sources are being contaminated. Expansion of the dump, which they have named “Mt. Trashmore,” will only worsen the problem, they say.

Two lawsuits are pending in the courts against the expansion plan.

Meanwhile, approvals are required from the state Integrated Waste Management Board and the county Department of Health Services, whose approval is seen as likely.

Supervisors are proposing an additional 126-acre expansion of the landfill to increase its capacity to the end of the decade. A $125-million recycling facility is also proposed on a 17-acre site adjacent to the landfill.